Christmas Comes More Than Once This Year
How many Christmases are you having this year? Or will it be one Christmas, one Hanukkah, and perhaps a Kwanza dinner? After years of singular Christmas simplicity, this year it looks like my family might be having two Christmases, in a way. As new as it may be for us, celebrating multiple times to include different sides of a family is nothing new to many folks. As families grow, divide, and merge, the holidays are a time to see and to embrace as many parts of that family as possible, no matter how many "Christmas" dinners it takes.
My family, and thus my Christmas meals, have always been small and large at the same time. Increasingly rare is the fact that my immediate family is surprisingly large and nuclear. The good, loving, Catholic parents I am born of have survived nearly thirty years of marriage and four (mostly) good, loving, Catholic children. Without any marriages or progeny of our own yet, family Christmases have always been just us, one small but large family gathering with one small yet large Christmas meal.
The last couple of years, however, we have been creating a new tradition, one that involves more of our extended family, more families' traditions, and yes, lots more to eat. With all of us grown up, it has been a delight to have my young cousins with their unbridled holiday enthusiasm running around the house. But as my aunt is divorced, by the time she and her kids arrive on Christmas Day this year, they will be celebrating Christmas Part II. And while my family and my grandfather are waiting eagerly for their arrival, we will have already dug through stockings and most likely dug through several plates of food as well.
While it is wonderful to have the opportunity for so much celebration, planning for multiple meals creates the challenge of not only cooking for so many people’s needs, but also of keeping the meals unique enough that each feels celebratory and original. Plus, you want them to be easy enough that you have time to open presents and to visit without having to spend all your time in the kitchen. Here are some tips to make easy meals that feel festive no matter how many times you are having “Christmas Dinner.”
Decorate. Just like you take the familiar house that you live in every day and dress it up for the holidays, take familiar foods you are comfortable with preparing and simply “decorate” them with special occasion condiments to make them feel more celebratory. A drizzle of truffle oil (fairly inexpensive these days and found at specialty markets) turns a plain soup, risotto, or pasta into a completely indulgent dish. Swap balsamic vinegar for a vinegar you don’t use very often. For instance, use white balsamic on a caprese salad, sherry vinegar for dark greens, champagne vinegar in salad dressing.
Buy Pre-Wrapped. Don’t buy everything pre-packaged, but certain things, like a mini black forest ham, can cut down on the cooking. A small smoked turkey breast or ham can be reheated in the oven in 20 minutes. Or slice it cold, top the slices on a rich melting cheese on some crostini and pop in the broiler until warm.
Use color. Foods in greens and red can add festive color to the dinner table as much as ornaments on the tree add color to the room. A smoked tomato soup with a drizzle of basil pesto, broccolini with marsala plumped dried cranberries, grilled red pepper and zucchini paninis are as delicious as they are appropriately red and green.
Who says Christmas has to come but once a year? With a month of celebrations with co-workers and friends, and several days to catch up with all parts of one’s family, there is sufficient occasion to make Christmas dinner multiple times. Dressed up, colorful, and a little pre-wrapped, dinner can be as festive as your own mood. And you should be able to leave the stove to be where you want to be: with your family, all parts of it.
Made with salt and pepper, olive oil, broccolini, dried cranberries, Marsala wine, pine nuts
Serves/Makes: 8
- 1 pound broccolini
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup Marsala wine
- 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (approximately)
- salt and pepper
Bring a large pot of water to boil with a generous amount of salt. Trim ends of broccolini. Cook in boiling water for about 4 minutes until cooked through.
Transfer to a large bowl of ice water to stop cooking process. Remove from ice water to paper towels to drain.
Meanwhile, bring Marsala to boil in a small saucepan and remove from heat. Add dried cranberries to Marsala and let soak for 20 minutes.
To serve, lay broccolini out on a platter and sprinkle with some salt and cracked pepper. Remove cranberries from Marsala with a spoon and scatter evenly over broccolini.
Evenly scatter toasted pine nuts over broccolini as well. Sprinkle with 2-3 Tbs. of reserved Marsala from the cranberries. Evenly drizzle with olive oil.
Serve.
Made with ham, brie, apricot marmalade, French baguette
Serves/Makes: 16 pcs
- 1/2 pound black forest ham
- 8 ounces brie
- 16 teaspoons apricot marmalade or other favorite jam
- 1 French baguette
Preheat broiler.
Slice baguette on a diagonal into slices 1 inch thick. Thinly slice ham. Slice brie into about 16 even slices. Place one piece of brie onto each baguette and top with some thinly sliced ham, cut to fit crostini if necessary.
Line a baking sheet with foil and place crostini evenly spaced out on sheet. Place under broiler and cook for about 3 minutes until cheese start to melt. Remove from oven and top each with a teaspoon of marmalade. Serve.
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